


A Mother’s Love

by Gray_Skies_Rising



Series: Living in the Dawn and Dusk [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Bad Parents Jack and Janet Drake, Blanket Permission, Child Abandonment, Child Neglect, Court of Owls, Dark Batfamily (DCU), Extreme objectification and dehumanization, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24244366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Skies_Rising/pseuds/Gray_Skies_Rising
Summary: TheBatmanhad tried to destroy them a few years prior, and obviously thought that he had succeeded if the halted attacks were any indication. If only he knew how far they stretched and how much they controlled.Her heir would grow up to be another of the Courts ranks.Maybe then, it would be deserving of her love.
Relationships: Jack Drake & Janet Drake & Tim Drake, Jack Drake & Tim Drake, Jack Drake/Janet Drake, Janet Drake & Tim Drake
Series: Living in the Dawn and Dusk [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735045
Comments: 12
Kudos: 248





	A Mother’s Love

**Author's Note:**

> Tw: Court of Owls, extreme objectification and dehumanization, mention of the Grayson’s murder, mention of kidnapping, child neglect and child abandonment

Janet was a brilliant woman, no one, except a fool, could deny that.

She ran a company, embarked on many historic archeology digs with her husband, and did it all even though she came from nothing.

Many of the other societies turned their noses up at the  _ new money _ woman amongst their mists. Whispering about all the ways she could have risen from her lowly status. None of them the truth, of course.

Yes, Janet Drake was a brilliant and hard working woman.

However, she was no mother.

Even  _ if _ she could be one, biologically, she never wanted to be. But everyone needed an heir. Someone to succeed them and keep focused on the main goal of a project.

There was no way all her hard work was going to be given to the highest bidder. Janet would rather tear everything down with her bare hands before that happened.

She knew, of course, who that highest bidder would be.

They controlled every other part of her life, what was one more?

Janet didn’t mind, though. The Court had given her everything she could ever dream of. Money, fame, a loving husband, protection from everything and everyone, and so much more.

But now, she had to ask them for something she didn’t want.

Something she never wanted.

But everyone needed an heir.

So, when the Talon had come to her door and handed her the child, she didn’t think twice before dumping it onto the nearest maid. She didn’t ask the Talon where they had gotten the thing, or if they had grown it, not that the Talon would have know the answer. Just pressed the swaddled cloths into another’s arms with a scowl on her lips and disgust boiling in her stomach.

Just because it would be raised to be her heir didn’t mean she would like it.

For the first three months of the thing’s existence, Janet had been trapped inside the house with it. She and Jack had been unable to find any promising dig sites and being stuck with the knowledge that that  _ thing  _ was in her house was eating her alive.

Jack knew, of course he knew. He had known before Janet had made her case before the Court. He always knew.

He wanted an heir just as much as she did, but the idea of his own child, to raise and cherish, had, unlike her, actually appealed to him.

Janet was quick to squash that idea. They would have minimal contact with it, just enough to make sure it knew to whom it belonged too and exactly what it was going to be when it grew up.

Jack may have loved the idea of raising the thing, but he loved her more.

For the first few years of its life, Janet could happily say that she couldn’t tell you a thing about it.  
  
Not eye color. Not hair color. Not when it’s first steps where. Not it’s first words. Nothing.

She could, however, tell you the date the old help had chosen to use for a poor excuse as a birthday.

July 19.

The date the cursed thing came to her.

It seemed that no matter who she fired, someone would find out about the date and  _ celebrate it. _

Like that time the thing’s nanny decided to take it to the circus as a present. It was several months before the actual date, but the maid had heard about what had happened to her predecessor and wasn’t keen on repeating it. Infact, the only reason Janet knew about the incident was because two of the freaks had died in an accident with the elephants and their child kidnapped the next day.

It was all over the news.

The thing, Timothy, she reminded herself whenever it came near, had pointed at the picture underneath the headline and said, “I watched him fly, Mommy.” Janet had smiled despite the disgust and hatred for the thing in front of her and replied in a sickly sweet voice, “That’s wonderful sweetheart!”

Let’s just say, Janet enjoyed ripping the young woman apart and making sure she could never find a job again.

The thing got everything it’s heart desired anyways. Jack never could say no to the thing, saying no was never his job. That’s how the thing got it’s camera. 

But, Janet had to concede, when it stared up at her with its big eyes, she too, had a hard time saying no.

That’s how, one lone night, she found herself singing the thing to sleep.

A blizzard had blown in over Gotham and knocked out the power. Janet had never thought to install generators in her home, so it was freezing cold.

Her and Jack were huddled in one of the living rooms with a roaring fire. The thing had snuck into the room and was standing timidly in front of her. Janet had half a mind to send it into the kitchen, where the help was warming themselves around the gas stove.

But then it had looked at her in perfect innocence, and asked her to sing it a song.

Janet had seen an opportunity and took it. If this thing was going to be her heir, it needed to follow in her footsteps.

The song she chose was the one that put her on the path she was on today. Her mother, and many other parents, had used it as a warning, Janet had taken it as something much different.

_ “Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time / Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime / They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed / Speak not a whispered word about them, or they'll send the Talon for your head.” _

The thing had curled into her and she had to resist the urge to push it off.

The  _ Batman _ had tried to destroy them a few years prior, and obviously thought that he had succeeded if the halted attacks were any indication. If only he knew how far they stretched and how much they controlled.

Her heir would grow up to be another of the Courts ranks.

Maybe then, it would be deserving of her love.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos are my life blood.


End file.
